This paper contributes to the development of a situational perspective on crime by defining the concept of situation, developing four hypotheses about the situational characteristics of selected personal contact crimes, and then testing those hypotheses using victimization survey data from the United States and Venezuela. The research shows that coercive crimes are less situationally clustered than noncoercive crimes and that instrumental crimes are more situationally clustered than character crimes. Despite tremendous difference in crime rates for the two countries, substantial similarity is found in situational crime patterns. The implications of the research for criminological theory are discussed. 17 notes, 4 tables, 1 appendix, and 61 references (Publisher's abstract)